The present invention relates to sporting equipment shafts and in particular to shafts suitable for use in high-impact, high-velocity, and high wear and tear sports such as ice hockey, street hockey, in-line skate hockey, ringuette, field hockey, lacrosse and other such sports. The present invention, by way of example only, will be described hereinafter in relation to ice hockey sticks, but it is understood that the invention herein described and claimed may be suitably adapted to other shaft applications and in particular to other sports.
At present, hockey sticks may be generally broken down into two broad categories, namely wooden hockey sticks, which shafts are generally made of wood such as any suitable hardwood, for example hickory, maple, etc., and composite sticks, which shafts are made of composite materials, such as carbon fiber, Kevlar™, fiberglass, and other such materials or combination of materials which are embedded in any one of a number of resins. The present invention relates to composite hockey sticks.
Composite hockey stick shafts are in many ways superior to conventional wooden shafts in that they may be stronger and lighter, thus allowing a player to deliver more strength to the puck during play, such as during slapshots, wrist shots, any hard shot and during passing. In addition, composite hockey stick shafts, depending on their method and materials of construction, may exhibit superior characteristics with respect to torsional resistance, bending-moment resistance, shear resistance and are often preferred by both amateur and professional players alike. However, composite hockey stick shafts may exhibit poor or sub-standard resistance to direct impacts thereon which stick shafts are often subjected to during play, in particular when compared to wood shafts. For example, composite hockey stick shafts which receive a direct hit thereon, from either another stick, a puck, or which are hit against the boards, against the ice or against any other object have been known to crack, shatter, delaminate, or break apart. This results from a characteristic of some composite hockey shift shafts in that they are brittle, exhibit little ductile deformation characteristics and have poor impact-absorbing ability.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide for a composite hockey stick shaft having a particular construction which enables the shaft to better absorb impacts and resist deformation resulting from impact loading thereon.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide composite hockey stick shafts wherein the materials and method of construction thereof allow for impact dissipation such that the forces of impact are spread up and down the length of the shaft and are not localized.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a composite hockey stick shaft comprising a viscoelastic layer which provides for improved impact-absorption characteristics such that energy generated by an impact may be dissipated away from the localized area of the impact, thus reducing the stress transferred on the composite materials at the point of impact.
It is a further advantage of the present invention to provide a composite hockey stick shaft having increased strength and durability along the shaft thereof.